CHICAGO -- A federal judge Friday overturned a jury's ruling that the Bee Gees stole their 1977 hit song 'How Deep Is Your Love' from a suburban antique dealer.
U.S. District Judge George N. Leighton, who presided over the original trial, ruled the Feb. 23 jury verdict finding the Bee Gees guilty of copyright infringement was not supported by evidence.
The Australian pop group had been accused of plagarizing the song actually written by antique dealer Ronald Selle of Hazel Crest.
The jury of three men and three women last February listened to reels of tape recordings before deciding 'How Deep Is Your Love' was really Selle's song 'Let It End.' Several notes in two themes at the beginning and end of both songs were at issue.
But Leighton ruled the Bee Gees -- brothers Robin, Maurice and Barry Gibb -- never had an opportunity either to have seen the score of Selle's song or to have heard it played.
The judge noted Selle himself said his song was never published by any company, recorded by any singing or playing group, or publicly performed by anyone other than his own small band two or three times around Chicago.
Selle said he wrote 'Let It End' in 1975.
The Bee Gees said they wrote 'How Deep Is Your Love' in a secluded French chateau in January, 1977. They played tapes at the trial that depicted them creating the song as they went along.
'This is a major decision that will affect every established songwriter and new songwriters in the business,' Barry Gibb said in a statement released by the group's Beverly Hills public relations firm. 'Maurice, Robin and I are immensely relieved. We've held on to our belief in the judicial system and our belief has been justified. We had a feeling the judge would see we are innocent.'
'How Deep Is Your Love' was from the soundtrack of the movie 'Saturday Night Fever.' The jury also found Paramount Pictures guilty of copyright infringement, since the company owned the rights to the album, which sold more than 30 million copies and won five Grammy awards, including Album of the Year for 1978.
